Japanese artist Motoi Yamamoto works quietly in the Monterey Museum of Art gallery, sitting on his bottom, hunched over, applying material to create elaborate, intersecting, veined lines across the 1,800 square-foot floor.

The image is similar to a spider weaving a web. Except when you look up close, you see Yamamoto is using salt to create his art.

You read that right. Salt. As in table salt. Morton's, to be exact. Two hundred pounds of it.

The public can watch Yamamoto's work in progress — "Return to the Sea, Saltworks by Motoi Yamamoto" — through Thursday during the Pacific Street museum's regular hours. A reception takes place Thursday night at the museum.

His work will be on display through Aug. 25 when a unique show-closer takes place. Visitors will dismantle the art by scooping up the salt and carrying it in a procession to the bay. The salt will then be thrown into the ocean as a gesture of regeneration, or a rebirth, as Yamamoto likes to call it.

Yamamoto began working with salt in 1996, shortly after the death of his 24-year-old sister from brain cancer.

"The (exhibit) theme is death and funeral," said Yamamoto, who speaks very limited English. "The salt is a funeral material in Japan."

According to the museum, salt is a symbol for purification and mourning in Japanese culture.

Yamamoto refers to his salt installations as "labyrinths." The Monterey installation is being designed like a spiral, with the image meant to resemble a cyclone.

Yamamoto said he began exploring cyclone designs in his work four years ago.

"The spiral shape, the meaning is rebirth, death and life," said Yamamoto. "I made a labyrinth style. A labyrinth is the same meaning. A rebirth."

Yamamoto applies the salt using a plastic oil bottle. It is similar to ones his parents used in their bike shop in his native Japan.

The process resembles someone using a caulking gun. Observing from the gallery balcony, it's hard to believe he is using salt and not some sort of pasty material.

Moisture in the air poses the greatest threat to his work. With such a delicate medium, one might imagine the artist must control his breathing, for fear of blowing his work away.

"Sometimes I 'ahh-choo,'" said Yamamoto, laughing as he mimicked a sneeze, "but usually, I don't have trouble with breath. High humidity is a big problem with my work. Sometimes, it will melt into salt water."

Paintings and images of cyclone designs will surround Yamamoto's installation as reference points.

Museum curator Karen Crews Hendon said Yamamoto began working on the installation June 2. Within two days, he had already filled about a quarter of the space.

When it is completed, the installation will measure about 30 feet wide by 60 feet long. Roughly 8million granules of salt will be used, and about 100 man hours of work completed.

"I think he's making amazing progress," said Hendon, speaking during a Tuesday afternoon press preview. "It's all about the process of life, going through the day to day activities."

Returning the salt to the sea is another part of the process. For Yamamoto, that represents healing.

"It's a rejuvenation," said Hendon. "It becomes a happier time at the end of the process."

·When: The public is invited to watch the work in progress through Thursday. Opening reception is 6:30p.m. Thursday. Closing ceremony is 1p.m. Aug. 25. The museum is open 11a.m.-5p.m. Wed-Sat and 1-4 p.m. Sunday.

·Cost: Free with museum admission, which is $10 for adults, $5 students and military, free for museum members, children 12 and under and for NARM and AAM members.